Puritans – U.S. to 1877

September 25, 2013

Witchcraft and Religion in the Colonies

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The Salem Witch Trials have long been discussed by many historians and, no doubt, many history classes before ours. The beauty of historical analysis however, allows us to form our own opinions and voice unique thoughts either bouncing off previous theories or creating an amalgam of different thoughts. I read Sherwood’s(http://sites.davidson.edu/his141/taylor-chapter-15-norton-witchcraft-a-supernatural-inclination/) post and agree that the witch trials and evangelical movement cannot be completely independent of each other. Anyone can see the spiritual similarities and make a guess that there was correlation if not causation. In class, someone (I sadly have no idea who it was) mentioned Taylor’s point about women’s roles in societies in New England. They created networks of information that could be better identified as gossip (the same we all know and love in today’s society as well). I believe that the Salem debacle evolved from what EVFARESE (http://sites.davidson.edu/his141/author/evfarese/) described as “social warfare”. I’m not sure if this phrase is original or not but I like it. My views may be misconstrued by Hollywood’s The Crucible, but I believe the social aspect of Puritan society, mixed with a strong desire to be holy and good, started the entire unfortunate sequence of events. The girls were in small, strict towns and rarely travelled. Some might even spend an entire lifetime (if you weren’t hanged for black magic) in the same colony. In any small community, people have disputes and some simply do not get along. Whether hallucinogens acted as a catalyst or not, I believe this was in fact “social warfare” that ignited the powder keg that was evangelicals’ spiritual paranoia. Witch accusations, hangings, and mass hysteria can all be listed as results. As Sherwood mentioned, Evangelism definitely had a hand in what happened. The spiritual intensity fits like a perfect puzzle piece into the story of Salem’s witches.

*NOTE: I couldn’t find the passage from Taylor mentioned in class and was unsure how to cite someones comment in class.

September 11, 2013

Puritans and Indians reading

What I found most interesting in reading this chapter was that the Puritans had trouble getting their vision of a “city on a hill” to come to fruition, and Taylor references how the American Indians had a much healthier communal society that took care of everyone in the community. It is extremely ironic that many European immigrants saw these people as Barbarians when the native people had what the Puritans were searching for (aside from the absence of Christianity in the native people’s communities). Taylor Simmons does point out that not everyone saw these ‘Barbarians’ as savage, sub-human people groups, but the large majority of the settlers did not care enough to consider the American Indians’ life style, so most people did not have the same revelation as Roger Williams. I think that overall (Alan) Taylor does a good job of portraying the colonial Indian wars, and I understand that covering an entire war in two to three pages is extremely difficult, but I wish he would have spent more time covering the Pequot War because I feel like the colonists’ attitudes to the Indians is portrayed very clearly. He could have built on Governor William Bradford’s view that “God had found them worthy” (196) to take over the land. Also, many religious leaders’ responses to the war contradicted what Williams thought, including Reverend John Robinson of the Plymouth Colony who said, “how happy a thing it had been, if you had converted some before you had killed any…” (197). Religion continued to play a key roll in the settlers’ attitude to the Indians, and Taylor could have devoted more time to this topic. I like Taylor’s use of primary sources in the chapter, and the quotes he uses prove how much religion dictated confrontation with the Indians. I just wish he would have built on these sources more. Taylor supports his argument of colonists changing the environment (and, therefore, the lives) of the American Indians and how they dwindled into a small minority because of the effect of European settlement.

September 10, 2013

Chapters 9 & 12 Response

In the two chapters in American Colonies, Taylor phrases his sentences to make readers think the Puritans were unjust to the Indians, while the colonists who lived in the Middle Colonies, because of the way they treated others, lived the best colonial life. I agree with Matt’s last post when he describes how Taylor tends to share his own opinion on certain groups of people in colonial America. It was definitely apparent in this section that Taylor thought the Puritans should have been more accepting of the Indians around them. He also seems so impressed with colonial life in the Middle Colonies, misleading his readers, because life was not always perfect there either.

When Taylor writes about the Puritan and Indian societies, I noticed that he tries to compare the different ways of life, more than he does contrast. For example, when he explains how the New Englanders, “cut off [Metacom’s] head for display on a post atop a brick watchtower,” an act most would think Indians would do, readers see how hypocritical the Puritans were in their quest to extinguish the “savages” (Taylor 201). Taylor also describes the gender roles in the two different societies similarly: the men do the tougher labor of harvesting or hunting, while the women usually take care of the children and tend to household duties. He shows these comparisons so readers can see that the Puritans may not have been so different from the Indians, yet they thought they were so above them. I had never thought about the English colonists being similar to the native tribes, but both the Puritans and the Indians in the area lived in communities and worked together. Because of this comparison, when Taylor writes about the Puritan destruction of Indian villages, readers view New Englanders as unjust invaders.

On the other hand, Taylor emphasizes the civility of life in the Middle Colonies because of the acceptance of all ethnicities and religions. Taylor describes William Penn in a new way, as the connection between the elite and the outcasts. Although I knew that he was raised wealthy, but was different because of his Quaker conversion, Taylor shows how necessary it was for Penn to have ties to both types of people. Without him, the colony, and possibly even the future country, would never have been able to survive. Taylor also emphasizes the peace between the middle colonists and the Indians, differing them from the Chesapeake and New England colonists. Without the fear of Indian attacks, the middle colonists were able to thrive and Taylor describes a seemingly ideal colony, filled with accepting people.

Just as he did while comparing the Spanish and French colonizers, Taylor writes with some bias, making readers see certain English colonists as better people than others.